Allred Family

Thursday, May 9, 2013

November was a very bittersweet month. Ryan came home from training: (yay!) and we prepared to move to Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, AR (sad). While Ryan had been going to school full time, had worked in California for six months and then went on to training in San Antonio for another three months, I had been blessed with incredible friends who buoyed me up during a very difficult time for my family. November was a month of wretched good-byes and see you laters that weighed on my heart heavily.

I didn't take many photos on my camera, but I have plenty of Facebook photos.

Before
After
Monica and Leah love having shorter hair. I like not having the fuss when it comes time to detangle.

These guys.

Seriously. Just thinking about them and how much I miss them some days chokes me up. But they were direct answers to prayer for me. And I will always love them. I don't know why, but in this pic, in the empty house, I feel like this summed us up. There was nothing in the house and we still had so much fun.

Benji and Hana
Liz, Me, and Hana
All of us out for my last authentic Mexican dining experience before hitting the road to Arkansas.

I'm not kidding. I haven't had good Mexican food since I moved to Jacksonville. I'm not entirely convinced it exists out here.

Before we drove out to Arkansas, we were able to spend Thanksgiving in Albuquerque with my family and I was able to hug and kiss Grandma Kathy a few more times before she passed away in January. I was also able to get some pretty good pics with the family.

Blue Steel and Le Tigra
Ferrari and Magnum
Mom and Me!
Me and Dad!
The cousins
Us with Maggie and John
With Aunty Michele
With Aunty Theresa
And Aunty Sarah

We were also able to spend some time in Ramah with Jodi and Jeff and see Kris and Lonnie as well.
We went hiking in the mountains to help Jesse cut some lumber and we shot guns for a bit.

Finally, on November 27th, we stopped in Dallas to see the Milbergers and...
...we arrived at Little Rock Air Force Base in Jacksonville, Arkansas.

For Halloween, Monica was a witch, Leah was Rainbow Dash, and Jilly was a chef.

The Facebook photos:
We had a chocolate white elephant gift exchange Ladies' Night.
I built my first table from scratch.
We got to meet Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles! It was wonderful to hear his apostolic blessing that as we taught our children, they would hear us and hearken to our words.It was also very sweet and heartening to watch him allow Monica and Leah to hug him.
Monica lost another tooth, this time during Primary.
We went to the Mesilla Valley Pumpkin Patch with our friends.

We went to the Stake Halloween Carnival
I played in my first sand volleyball tourney and got to cheer on my friends, Jen Shumway, Cody Sowards, and Amber Jensen as they dominated the tournament. My team didn't win a single game. And. It. Was. So. Fun!
I went to a Minute-To-Win-It Halloween Party. I was a gypsy.
Courtney, Hana, me, and Liz
Kristen Marberger was my partner for the games since her hubby wasn't able to come party either. She was a musketeer. We won third place.
The girls doing what they do best, being cute.
A super cute photo of Jillian milking it.

About this time, Liz, Hana and I were having Scrabble nights and it was helping the time go by with less stress as they made life easier. I also started playing volleyball at the church and fell in love with all the ladies there. It made the time much more easily borne and I believe I was a better mother for having a good place to take out my frustration and have fun doing it. I also was playing basketball when I could with Amber and the guys from church. I realized at this point just how out of shape I was. But they were all still so encouraging and forgiving of my suckiness that it made it easy to keep coming and start improving again. Melissa Watson, Emily Harrington, and Dayna Young, Kim Green, Liz and Hana were also huge lifesavers as they leant their ears and shoulders for me. I was seriously blessed with wonderful sister friends.

The Scoop

My name is Anna and I love my family. I also love to write. Put these two loves together and you get this blog. While we enjoy sharing our lives and precious moments with those we love, this is our own family record for us, sprinkled with my thoughts and inspirations as a mother getting her on-the-job-training.